Everyone is suddenly talking about Hyundai now Bloomberg called its Ioniq 5 EV one of the two “hottest cars on the market” in the US. For now, Hyundai is sharing the spotlight with another automaker. However, with the launch of the new Ioniq 6 EV, it’s headed straight for sole ownership of the top slot, and it might just get there.
Great, EV with no baggage (relatively speaking)
If you guessed that a Tesla EV of one kind or another shared the Bloomberg Hottest Car title with the Ioniq 5, that’s a good guess, but it’s not. Bloomberg reporter Kyle Stock meant. He mentioned another Hyundai Motor Group entry, the Kia EV6.
Either way, the growing variety in the all-electric market is good news for EV fans looking for alternatives to Tesla’s offerings. Owning an electric car should be an uplifting experience. After all, man is saving the planet with every mile he walks (more on that in a second). But the baggage carried by Tesla is becoming quite a burden, one example being the multiple allegations of pervasive racism at the company’s factory in Fremont, California.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s attention-seeking behavior didn’t help matters much. To cite just one example (there are others), during the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak, Musk parroted former President Trump’s misdirection of the deadly virus. This was consistent with his support for the accused coup plotter during his tenure, but not particularly helpful to those trying to save lives.
To be clear, every manufacturer is likely to carry some baggage. For example, Hyundai doesn’t seem to have learned from “dieselgate”. All the more reason to stop making gas scooters!
More specifically, if you were asked to name the president and global chief operating officer of Hyundai Motor Group, would José Muñoz come to mind?
Most auto managers keep a low profile, and for good reason. Why risk turning potential customers off when the focus should be on a car that they are asking a significant amount of money for.
So what about the Ioniq 6 EV?
Where were we? Sure, the new Hyundai Ioniq 6 EV. CleanTechnica’s Steve Hanley was previewing the new car and noticed last month when Hyundai released a teaser photo.
“The car follows closely on the company’s Prophesy concept that wowed the automotive world in March last year,” he noted. “The Prophesy was sleek and slim in a way not seen in a passenger car since the Audi 5000 arrived on the scene in 1978.”
And how! Yesterday, Hyundai upped the ante with a YouTube video profiling the Ioniq 6 along with a lengthy press release.
You can catch all the deets from Hyundai, but for those of you on the go, the key quote is this:
“The IONIQ 6 provides an estimated all-electric range over 610 km, according to the WLTP (Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure) standard, as well as ultra-fast, 400-V/800-V multiple charging enabled by Hyundai Motor Group’s Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP).
For those of you keeping score at home, E-GMP is Hyundai’s universal EV-specific platform. “This specialized platform is built specifically for electric vehicles,” the company explains. “It includes the vehicle’s chassis, including the battery, motor and electrical system, and its scalable wheelbase allows it to form the backbone of many different types of vehicles.”
More specifically, the E-GMP was introduced with a battery range of 500 kilometers, which the new Ioniq6 EV surpasses by a large margin.
Breaking the demographic bubble of electric cars
The YouTube video has already earned a few snide comments from YouTube commenters (shocker!), but they miss the point.
When Tesla was the only game in town, the demographic profile of the typical EV owner was an older, higher-income white male. This demographic still dominates the electric vehicle market in general and the Tesla Model 3 in particular. Hedges & Company recently ran the numbers and came up with this:
“Model 3 owners are predominantly male. Only 16% of Model 3s are owned by women and 84% by men.
This makes the Model 3 the most “masculine” of the Tesla models. Men own 77% of Model S vehicles and women own 23%. Males dropped to 71% for the Tesla Model X compared to 29% for females.”
That’s not too far off from the gender breakdown of the new car buying public, which continues to lean towards men (used cars are a different story). But it does suggest that EV makers have failed to break into the non-male market, and that’s where the Ioniq 6 EV has a chance to break the bubble.
Ignore the YouTube comments and see what Hyundai is selling. It’s not pitching a car to save the planet (which is nonsense anyway). Hyundai offers a functional vehicle for women and other non-men who value a stress-free experience while they go about their work.
The idea of a vehicle as a workstation is not a new thing. It has been for generations. The COVID-19 pandemic and remote work have added a new level of demand for mobile work environments, and EV technology is providing the platform.
A big angle of the EV’s contribution that Hyundai is enthusiastic about is vehicle-to-device charging without having to fill the environment with the noise and fumes of an idling combustion engine.
Another advantage is the extra space and flexibility provided by the electric drive.
“The innovative interior is carefully thought out as a personal cocoon-like space, enhanced with the latest technologies to create a safe, fun and stress-free driving experience,” enthused “Thomas Schemera, Executive Vice President, Global Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Customer Experience, Hyundai Motor Company.
What’s the big deal about electric vehicles?
The idea of saving the planet by buying an EV isn’t complete nonsense, but it skates pretty well on the edge. After all, tailpipe emissions are just one end of a long carbon chain from automaker to dealer. If you really want to reduce your personal carbon footprint, walk more, cycle more, carpool, use public transport or get an e-bike.
To be fair, alternative mobility is not an option for many people. This is where the EV option beats any gas car, any day.
Still, no matter what comes out of the exhaust, a car can be dangerous even when it’s not moving.
If you’ve ever had a door or had to swerve to avoid opening a car door that suddenly got in your way, you know all about it. This safety issue is bound to grow as more and more people use bicycles, e-bikes and soot.
Hyundai seems to have considered the dangers of opening the door, albeit from the opposite perspective. The Ioniq 6 uses all the assistance bells and whistles to avoid collisions with pedestrians and other users of alternative mobility, and then there’s this interesting feature:
“The IONIQ 6…keeps rear seat passengers safe with Safe Exit Warning (SEW), which provides a warning when a vehicle is approaching from behind when exiting the vehicle. When the passenger opens the door to exit the vehicle after stopping, if an approaching vehicle from the rear is detected, it will issue a warning.
Interesting! No word yet on whether SEW is sensitive enough to warn of a two-wheel approach, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Production is expected later this year, so stay tuned for more information.
Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.
Photo (cropped): Hyundai Ioniq 6 EV courtesy of Hyundai.
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